Copending U.S. patent application entitled TWIN WAVEGUIDE LASER by Peter P. Chenausky, Robert J. Mongeon, Erroll H. Drinkwater and Lanny M. Laughman, filed on or about Feb. 16, 1982, Ser. No. 348,565, shows a waveguide laser having two or more waveguides which have the same RF electrodes in common. The RF discharges in both channels in this prior art laser usually initiate simultaneously. In the case when one discharge fires and the other does not, the second discharge may be struck by temporarily increasing the applied RF power.